Shelby went home and relieved Puck of his babysitting duties. He left, leaving a virtually destructed Shelby alone with her baby that was sleeping in the other room.

What was she thinking? How could she, the Ice Queen, have broken down so much after all of those years of pushing thoughts and feelings for Rachel to the side? No matter what she did, she would always be guilty for her past actions. If she had raised her daughter, Rachel would not have felt the need to try and end her life.

And, she would not have told her daughter that she had no choice but to come live with her. She couldn't force her daughter to live with her when she was a legal adult. Her age might have said that she was an adult, but she was not an adult. That was definitely going to create conflict. She had lost the privilege to be alone.

She was still a child. She was still a child because her fathers had never helped her grow up and never helped her see the world through adult eyes. Not to mention that her boyfriend had broken up with her (she didn't know enough about that to make statements about whose fault that was). All she knew was that all of this had left Rachel feeling alone, and like she wasn't worth anything.

Shelby's thoughts were interrupted when her doorbell rang. She rose from her seat and walked over to the door, getting a little irritated when she saw that it was Quinn. Nonetheless, she answered it.

"Hi Ms. Corcoran." Quinn greeted shyly. Her hair was no longer pink, and she had taken the nose ring out. "I am not expecting you to just trust me and think I am worthy of taking care of my child, but I need her. The first time I saw that little face, I knew. She is a part of me no matter how hard I try to tell myself that she is not."

Shelby took a deep breath. "I know how that feels. It sucks knowing that you will not be a part of your child's life despite carrying them for nine months. But the truth is, as much as I hate to admit it, Rachel is not my child. Sure I carried her for nine months, but her parents carried her around for the eighteen years after that. I don't know what to say to you Quinn."

Quinn bit her lip, trying so hard not to cry. She could hear it in Shelby's voice that she was going to keep Beth away from her no matter how hard she begged. She was standing in the doorway to Shelby's apartment like an idiot. There was nothing she could do now.

"Ms. Corcoran... if you're going to tell me I can't be apart of Beth's life, I am not going to lie. That really makes me want to punch you in the face. She's your daughter now. Like you said, nine months or a whole lifetime? But, I think you're wrong. I know because you are Rachel's parent, not the Berrys. All of the glee club has been worried about her, and we are sure part of it is because of her parents. They haven't been around in a long time. When they were around, they weren't doing much good. They probably should have gotten a divorce a long time ago, Rachel begged them, but they wouldn't. Being in a position like that is not helping her mental state. You are stepping in, and that makes you the parent."

"She hates me." Shelby bit. "I abandoned her. Nothing I do will change that."

"She doesn't hate you. She just does not know how to react to you. She loves you." Quinn took a deep breath. "Good night Ms. Corcoran." Quinn turned around to leave.

"Quinn!" She turned back around. "Maybe you should babysit Beth. But it has to be on my terms. I get the right to pull out anytime."

Quinn smiled back. "You didn't have to do that."

"I know. I want to."

"Wow. I'm honored. I get to stay with the award winning national show choir champion coach Shelby Corcoran, that all kids who ever had to deal with her hated." Rachel mused as Shelby pushed her wheelchair out of the hospital. Shelby just rolled her eyes.

"Why can't I walk? Last time I check I was not crippled in my attempts."

Shelby stopped to take a deep breath. "Rach, you can bicker with me all you want, but that won't change that you are staying with me."

"You cannot legally require me to stay with you. I am eighteen years old, that makes me a legal adult." Rachel continued babbling, and Shelby stopped to sign the release papers.

"You lost the privilege to live alone when you tried to kill yourself." Shelby growled, begging Rachel to stop, it was giving her a headache.

She doesn't know how to react to you

Shelby spent the rest of the way to the car to think of a way to approach Rachel, more carefully. Once Rachel was situated in the passenger seat of the car, Shelby started. "Rachel, I realize that this is an awkward situation for both of us. I am trying the best I can. Talk to me, please."

Rachel took a deep breath. "You don't understand."

Shelby reached across the seat to grab Rachel's hand and squeeze it. "Maybe I do. Tell me what's going through that mind of yours."

"School, glee, my fathers..." How to actually kill myself...

"Don't worry about any of that now. It's just you and me. Let's focus on you getting better. I have set up an appointment with a psychiatrist for tomorrow. I was thinking we could go shopping and pick up some stuff for you for my apartment. How does that sound?"

"I need to go back to my house, there's stuff I need to get." Rachel bit her lip. She wanted so hard to argue that she could take of herself so she could just finish it, but she knew Shelby was not going to leave her alone. She had it in her head that she was now Rachel's caregiver. Shelby was not worthy of ruling her anymore. Not after she had given that up, at least. Now everyone would be snooping up in her business.

"I don't think that's-"

Rachel cut her off. "You can come in with me if you don't trust me. I just..."

The mug with the star

"Gold stars are kind of my thing."

It sat on her nightstand, leaning against it was a picture she had found of her mother online. She looked at every day when she got up and every night when she went to sleep.

"Please?" Rachel asked quietly, looking nervously at her mother.

Her mother let out a breath. "Fine." She then began driving to the Berry household.

She had been there several times before, when she was pregnant with Rachel. At that point, Leroy and Hiram had liked her. But when Shelby had reconsidered giving away her daughter, then they had grown cold.

Rachel fumbled and found her house key in the potted plant next to the door. She sprinted off in her own direction and Shelby wandered around the front room.

There were a lot of pictures of young Rachel and her fathers. Shelby did notice, however, that as Rachel got older in the photos, her smile seemed faker and faker.

How could they just leave her?

Meanwhile, Rachel was shoving as much as she could into her suitcase. She put a lot of her clothes, her Playbill collection, her computer...

She looked at the mug sitting on the bedside table. Lifting it up, she studied it, before shoving it to the bottom of the suitcase. The picture, she put in her pocket.

Glancing around, she saw that her mother was not coming in, she stalked into her bathroom. Opening up the mirror, she saw her abundance of over-the-counter medicines. She didn't know if she could get them past Shelby... she shoved them all into a makeup bag and shoved the makeup bag into her purse.

"Hey Rachel?" Shelby called out from the other room. Rachel froze, was that her motherly radar going off? "How old are you in this picture?" Her body visibly relaxed, she hadn't gotten caught.

Finding her mother on the couch with an album of Rachel's photos, she glanced at it and quickly responded. "I was five in this picture. It was my first vocal recital. I sang Castle on a Cloud..."

"I missed so much." Shelby mumbled, flipping through the pictures.

Rachel didn't know how to respond to that. "Are you hungry? Thirsty?" She stalked off into the kitchen, sitting alone at the table.

"I'm, uh, good thanks. Did you finish getting your stuff?" Rachel grabbed a kitchen knife, as stupid as that may have sounded, before shoving it with the rest of the medicine.

It was her "medicine" anyways...

"Yeah, I'm ready." Rachel stalked back out to the living room, dragging her luggage behind her. "It was easier than dragging a bunch of boxes... she reasoned.

"Do you want me to carry anything?" Shelby offered.

"I'm fine." Rachel insisted, yanking her bags behind her before throwing them in the trunk of Shelby's Range Rover.

"So..." Shelby started. She was not a fan of driving in silence.

Rachel returned from her thoughts about death among other things, turning her head to look at the older version of herself. "So..."

"I was born in Ohio. Like you, I was raised with a deep love of the arts. My first musical was when I was five. And I hate Swiss cheese. That stuff is disgusting. When I was in high school, I took a dare on whether or not I could eat a slice of Swiss cheese. I ended up vomiting all over the floor. I think that Mark and Lexie were soulmates and always will be, and I think that disco will make a comeback."

Rachel just blinked rhythmically. Blink. Blink. "That was the most random thing you have said to me in all of the time that I have known you, which isn't saying much because I kind of don't know you at all."

"They are just some things I thought you should know about me. If you ever bought me a sandwich with Swiss on it I would have to permanently disown you."

Rachel frowned, furrowing her brow.

"I was kidding Rachel! I would never disown you! I promise you; you are more important to me than Swiss cheese!" Shelby wanted to punch herself in the face! She should not have been making jokes like that!

"That's..." Rachel paused. She wasn't quite sure if 'good' would be enough to describe it. Her mother told her she was more important than Swiss cheese.

That was one Rachel had never heard before.

"...it's good." She finished, a conflict beginning to form in her mind. This was all so confusing...! But at the same time, it made her feel a bit better. Rachel paused. "I am vegan, but you already knew that. I loved Finn and he loved me, for a while. I honestly thought he was my soulmate, and then..."

"What did happen between you two?" Her mother asked. "I mean, you don't have to tell me, but..." They were stopped at a stoplight, so Shelby turned her head to look at her daughter.

Rachel looked as though Shelby had personally punched her in the face. That was such a bad move. As her mother, Shelby was concerned. And she would go after Finn if he provoked her actions. Rachel swallowed hardly. "He left me to go back to Quinn."

Quinn... as in pink haired smoking Quinn? Was she missing something?

"He dumped her too." Rachel mumbled. "They lasted like a month."

"And now?"

"I am not really sure what he's up to. It's not really one of my main concerns at this point." That was a lie. It was such a lie. If anything, it was another thing that drove her to her inevitable downfall. She loved him. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. And he left her. She was alone, and she always would be.

Shelby paused; she was not going to say something stupid. This time whatever she said would be meaningful. "He doesn't deserve you, Rach. That's the complete and honest truth. You have so much potential that you are going to leave Lima and never turn back. And that's okay. I will support you no matter what you do. But I know you are going to do great things with or without a guy by your side."

Shelby finished her speech as the two of them pulled into the apartment parking lot. She saw Quinn's car, which was fine, but there was another one as well that didn't usually reside there. Rachel noticed this, and the thought sent a chill running down her spine.

"Do you need help with your bags?" Shelby asked, yanking the door of the trunk open. Rachel shook her head, grabbing the luggage and throwing it down on the ground.

The two of them made their way to the elevator, going up to the second floor. Shelby used her house key, in case the baby was asleep, the doorbell would wake her. She nodded at Quinn, who was sitting cross legged on the couch, rocking Beth back and forth. It was when she noticed the man that had his back to her that she got a little scared.

Quinn didn't look threatened, so he wasn't a serial killer. If anything, she seemed awkward.

He turned around.

That is when the awkwardness made sense.

"Hi Shelby."

"Leroy."